Evie

[juliet_of_stars]

So recently there has been a new addition to the apartment chaos. Evie is the apartment's new pet rat. She is a female Long-evans rat, born on January 1st, 2005. I took her from the lab I work at when she was a juvenile. She was apparently not going to be used for any experimentation for whatever reason and if nobody wanted her, she would have been euthanized. At first I figured I shouldn't get her because my roommates wouldn't like a pet rat. We are also technically not allowed to have pets in my apartment building. But I was surprised when Josephine and Colleen acted all gung-ho about getting a pet rat. So I broke the rules of the apartment (don't tell anybody) and I took her home from the lab. Now we play with her alot, actually. She spends alot of time in her little clear plastic ball, just running around the apartment. She's a pretty cool pet, actually. The only problem is that I have been sneezing alot lately and I dunno if I'm allergic to maybe her or her bedding. I suspect the chipped bedding because it is industrial grade bedding and when I cleaned out the operant boxes one day I sneezed my head off. And I was flinging the bedding everywhere when that happened, so I assume it's the bedding. So if I change the bedding and it's not the bedding then I guess I might be allergic to rats. Though it's really not a big deal, I haven't cared enough to buy new bedding yet so...whatever.

Anyway, Evie is really quite cute. She's a "hooded" rat, meaning her head and the entire middle of her back are black while her flanks are white. She's pretty cool, although she has peed on me a few times. I guess she's marking me as her territory. Hm. Well anyway, she's cute and everybody seems to like playing with her. It's kinda cool. The apartment pet - the rat.